High Heels and Gumboots: A city girl and a lot to learn

by Rebecca Hayter

For anyone who has dreamed of living in the country ... here's the hilarious, heart-warming brutal reality.


Rebecca Hayter was a high-profile yachting journalist based in Auckland when she followed a whim to buy a lifestyle block on the beach at Golden Bay at the top of the South Island – but she didn't know what she didn't know.

Unexpectedly in charge of chickens, sheep and an orchard, Rebecca shamelessly exploited local knowledge as she tackled drought, isolation and the mysteries of her Massey Ferguson 135. As a journalist, she explored local politics and the differences between urban and rural New Zealand. As a daughter, she explored the most complex relationship of her life.

Based on the author's column of the same name (Best Columnist/Blogger in the Media Awards 2020 for North & South magazine), this is a candid, hilarious, heartbreaking and heartwarming story of a woman learning the realities of life on the farm and finding confidence in new skills and in herself.

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 2, 2025

About the author

Rebecca Hayter is well known as a yachting journalist within New Zealand and as a contributor to high-profile overseas yachting magazines, including Boat International, SuperSailWorld, YachtingWorld, all based in UK; Cruising Helmsman, Australia; and Yachts International and Sail, USA.
After graduating from University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, Rebecca completed a Diploma in Short Story Writing and a Certificate in Journalism before launching her career as a freelance journalist across a wide range of magazines, including Boating New Zealand.
Frustrated at being unable to flex her sailing muscles properly, she bought a 26ft yacht and delved into the mysteries of yacht’s systems, diesel engines and solo cruising. In 1997, she crewed on a delivery of a Beneteau 50 from Florida, USA to Auckland, New Zealand via Panama Canal. In 1998, she joined Boating New Zealand as yachting editor and became its first woman editor a year later. She helmed the magazine through a major transformation to win Magazine of the Year, Special Interest and Editor of the Year – Supreme Overall Winner in 2006.
During this time, she wrote Endless Summer and Oceans Alone, both published by HarperCollins.
After resigning in 2008, Rebecca pursued a freelance career for a wide range of publications including NZ Life & Leisure, Boating New Zealand and The Shed and co-wrote What You Wish For – one man’s guide to life, death and alternative therapies with the late Paul Blacklow.
She returned to Boating New Zealand as editor in 2013 and won Magazine of the Year and Editor of the Year in 2014.
In 2015, Rebecca resigned to buy a lifestyle property she named Oceanspirit in her home town, Golden Bay. After completing her voyage with Ross Field in 2017, the story told in Wild Seas to Greenland, she sailed the coast of Maine in 2018 and crossed the Atlantic by yacht in 2019. Later that year, her story, On a Small Boat to Greenland which formed the basis for a chapter in Wild Seas to Greenland, won Highly Commended for Best International Travel Feature in the Travel Media Awards.
Along with learning about sheep, chooks and growing a vegetable garden at Oceanspirit, she has finished building an 8ft Spencer plywood dinghy and learned to mow with a cranky 1974 Massey Ferguson tractor. Her sometimes humorous, sometimes deplorable take on such adventures filled her column, High Heels and Gumboots in North & South magazine and won Best Columnist/Blogger in the Magazine Media Awards 2020.
She is working on her first novel and writing a book about an America’s Cup sailor.

Reviews

[Kiana Lawton · Rating 4 out of 5]

First non-fic read in a while so it was a bit slow but I really enjoyed it, very sweet and funny

[Kathryn Fathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

did I enjoy this so much because of my experiences in the 70s with a lifestyle block? probably. it's such hard work, never ending. like the gardening I love there is always something to do, and Rebecca Hayter did so much more and I did, she alone, me with the aid of an ever absent husband. loved the book. she achieved so much and writes with much humor. Great read

[Rosie Carnahan-Darby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, especially as I grew up in the area. Its a little Robinson Crusoe in its attention to detail which might have become too much if not for my connection with the place. But regardless its a fun, easy read and makes me feel guilty I dont get outside my comfort zone enough!

[Gaylene · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a 50 something woman who lives in a lifestyle block I devoured this book in one day sitting in the sun under an umbrella looking over the river when I should have been doing 1000 other things. Loved it.

[Amanda Wellgreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just inhaled this book. Very real account of a woman returning to her isolated hometown and taking on a lifestyle block. Entertaining and well written.